Queen Elizabeth "shed tears" at Narnia film ending: Neeson

Reuters Staff

2 Min Read

<p>Britain's Queen Elizabeth meets the cast of "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" at the Royal Premiere in Leicester Square, central London November 30, 2010. REUTERS/Ian Nicholson/POOL</p>

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - It appears Her Majesty approves of the new Narnia film.

Describing a poignant scene toward the end of the third film in the blockbuster series, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” actor Liam Neeson said he became emotional during its royal world premiere earlier this week.

“I shed a tear the other night and I was told the Queen shed a few tears as well,” he told a news conference on Thursday.

Neeson provides the voice of the animated lion Aslan in the movies, based on the children’s classics by C.S. Lewis.

Studio backer Twentieth Century Fox will keep a close eye on how the movie performs at the box office when it opens widely next week, having taken over from the Walt Disney Co.

When the first Narnia picture “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” came out in 2005, it earned $745 million in global ticket sales and was the third biggest movie of the year.

But Prince Caspian, the second Narnia picture released in 2008, recorded global box office takings of $420 million.

Mark Johnson, a producer on all three Narnia films, told the briefing that he would like to extend the franchise further.

“It’s certainly no secret that we’d like to make one more, and actually, we’d like to make several more,” he said.

“I think a lot depends on the future. Obviously we’ll see how well the audience embraces The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, but yes we would love to keep going and do all seven.”